Night Serenade

I tweaked the contrast on this slightly in Photoshop, and as a result, darkened it a bit more than I should have. This is one of the first times I've tried filling in a real background on a pencil work, as can be seen by lack of detail, and naturally I decided to be difficult and make it night - so the half-elf musician is obscured by the background. Anyone got any helpful hints on how to avoid this? 11' x 8.5', graphite, July 2002.